Improvement in needle for sewing-machine



tiuitrd leistet JOHN L. BOONE, OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.

Letters .Patent No. 100,112, dated February 22, V1870.

IMPROVEMENT IN NZEEIDIIZIE.IECR SEWING-MACHINE.

The Schedule referred to in tnese Letters Patent and making part of the same.

To all lwhom it may cmwern:

Be it known that I, JOHN L. BOONE, of the city and county of San Francisco, State of California, have invented-an In'iproved Sewiug-lvachine Needle; and I do hereby declare the following description and accom-l panying drawings are suicient to enable any person skilled in the art or science to which it most nearlyv appertaius to4 rnake and use my said invention or improvements without further invention or experiment.

My invent-ion relates to an improvement in sewingmachine needles, or to that class of needles in which theJ eye is made near the point; and

1t consists in an improved arrangement or construction, whereby the needle ymay be quickly and easily threaded, without the necessity of pointing the thread and poking it through the eye of the needle.

In order to explain my invention intelligently so that others can make and use the saule, I append hereto a full, clear-,and exact description, referring to the drawing accompanying this specification and forming a part of the same, in which- A represents a sewing-machine needle.

These needles, in order to render them' convenient and useful, have the eye made near the point, through which the thread is 4passed before operating the machine. v

To thread the needle easily, I split it, beginning above the point, as shown at Figure 1, upv into the eye at one side, either to the bottonr corner o r to the side of the eye, as shown.

I then continue the split a a short distance above the eye, thus forming a finger, b, which acts as a spring, and closes the split tight-ly.

In order to prevent the pointed end of the finger b from catching the fabric as it passes down through it in sewing, I reduce the outside of the'point so as to form a slight countersink, as shown at e, thus sinking the point, s'o thatthe bulge of the needle will cause it to pass through the fabric without catching.

"lo thread the needle, the thread is taken in the foretinger and thumb of each hand, a short distance apart, and pressed backward upon the pointof the needle, until the split between the finger band needle opens, when the thread is slipped upward into the eye, the split closing tightly after it so as toprevent its return.

The split might be made from above the point where the needle enters the -fabric down into the eye, and the thread inserted by springing back the point; but I` as when it was solid with the needle.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

A sewing-machine needle split above and below'the eye, as described, when the point of the side nger b is rounded and reduced below the general outline' of the needle, substantially as and br the purposes herein set forth.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal.

JOHN L. BOONE. [L s] Witnesses: WM. GERL'ACH, EUGENE FOLGER. 

